The Institute abandoned empirical research at the end of the 1930s

Evidence

It was not easy to assess this accurately against the dismal background of European fascism, which was marching from victory to victory. Towards the end of the 1930s, it was no longer possible for the Institute to carry out empirical research simultaneously in Europe and the USA, and it had to be restricted to America. To identify a complex of critical problems related to society which suited American conditions and at the same time fitted in with the Institute’s policy of caution required time. Horkheimer was increasingly impatient in his criticism of the various scientific disciplines, and increasingly severe in his labelling of every theoretical and philosophical tendency which was not critical of society, and which was successful in the USA, as a form of recognition and acceptance of existing conditions. This may partly explain why empirical and collaborative research ceased at the Institute altogether, why from the mid-1930s onwards it was left to Lazarsfeld, who for Horkheimer and Adorno belonged to the positivists, to represent the research methods which had been used by the Institute up till then. It may explain, too, why it was only the journal which continuedand in German. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1035

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the tension between empirical social research and critical theory that recurs throughout the Frankfurt School literature and later in Adorno’s dispute with Popper. — connects to: Frankfurt empirical research on family and authority ceased entirely by the late 1930s — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1025; The Frankfurt School’s promised empirical program quietly collapsed by the late 1930s — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1025; Horkheimer’s 1951 reopening speech abandoned the empirical research program of 1931 — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1906 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer’s 1951 reopening speech abandoned the empirical research program of 1931 #exemplifies (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1906
• The Institute suppressed needed objective-factor research as it returned to Frankfurt #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1842